Monthly Archives: June 2014

WikiLeaks is still relevant, Assange says after two years of asylum

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On the eve of his second anniversary of self-imposed confinement, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claims the publisher of information that governments, big business and security forces do not want to hear is as relevant as ever.

Speaking to reporters by phone on Wednesday, Mr. Assange insisted that WikiLeaks was still in the game, causing trouble and working hard to protect press freedom and whistleblowers, notably former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. With WikiLeakss help, Mr. Snowden evaded arrest and was able to flee last year from Hong Kong to Russia, where he is living in exile.

But it has been a few years since Mr. Assange, the ace hacker from Australia, has made front-page news around the world with sensational leaks that have rattled everyone from American military and intelligence organizations to the president of Tunisia, whose ouster in 2011 and the start of the Arab Spring was in part attributed to massive corruption revealed in leaked cables.

Mr. Assange, who is 42, has made news in the past two years, but most of it has been related to his own fight for freedom. Since June 19, 2012, he has been living under political asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy in London to avoid a British extradition order that would deliver him to Sweden to face police questioning over allegations of sexual misconduct or offences. Mr. Assange sought asylum for fear that the Swedish authorities would send him to the United States, where a grand jury is reportedly considering criminal charges against WikiLeaks for the release of classified security documents.

He said WikiLeaks will expose another secret cache of documents imminently with the publication of a massive file involving international relations. There will be around 50 countries involved and Canada is one of them, he said.

He would not provide details and would not confirm or deny whether the file was related to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade deal being negotiated with 12 countries, including Canada. Late last year, WikiLeaks caused a minor sensation when it published a draft text of the agreement, triggering questions from lawyers about its apparently American-centric view on intellectual property rights. Youll have to check the website [Thursday], is all he would say.

In spite of Mr. Assanges attempts to keep the leak machine rolling, the site has yet to see a repeat of the sensation it triggered in 2010, when it published hundreds of thousands of confidential U.S. files, from embarrassing diplomatic cables to the infamous Collateral Murder video of an American Apache helicopter mowing down a dozen people in an attack in Iraq.

Mr. Assanges legal team announced during his phone conference that it will mount a new legal challenge on Tuesday to the allegations of sexual misconduct involving two women in Sweden.

The new challenge came as Mr. Assange and his lawyers said they will send a letter next week to U.S. Attorney-General Eric Holder calling for him to terminate the four-year criminal investigation into WikiLeaks. The letter was signed by more than 30 human-rights, free-speech and jurist organizations, including the American Association of Jurists.

Mr. Assanges American attorney, Michael Ratner, said: I dont think that investigation has lessened.

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WikiLeaks is still relevant, Assange says after two years of asylum

Assange unleashes new threat

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Julian Assange speaking from the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012. The WikiLeaks founder has been in the embassy for two years. Photo: AFP/Leon Neal

Julian Assange is promising another massive leak of information affecting 50 countries on Thursday to mark his two years holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

On the eve of that anniversary, the Australian editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks invited the worlds media to dial in to the embassy so he could download.

In his conference call late on Wednesday night, Australian time, Assange called former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr a liar; he chastised US President Barack Obama; he revealed he had done more kilometres than he could count on his cross-trainer; and he spoke of his pride in WikiLeaks state-of-the-art technical clout which had allowed him while confined in his diplomatic refuge to manage the evacuation of American intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden from Hong Kong during the largest ever intelligence manhunt the world has ever seen.

US whistleblower Edward Snowden. Julian Assange claimed to be assisting him from the Ecuador embassy in London Photo: Reuters/NBC News

But Assange is making time to watch the World Cup after 729 days of asylum in the embassy. "Of course, Ecuador undoubtedly deserves to win, he said, although he added Brazil probably would triumph. In any case, the reception in this building is quite difficult, which may have its advantages. Perhaps it makes it a bit harder for the bugs to transmit through the walls as well.

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Assange said police gather intelligence on visitors and that the British government has spent almost $10 million on 24-hour surveillance of the embassy lest he ever dare to leave the small building, close to Harrods in Knightsbridge.

If he does leave, he faces immediate extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over alleged sexual misconduct involving two women for which he is yet to be charged after four years. He dismisses it as a trumped-up, politically driven distraction from the main game: the United States, where Vice-President Joe Biden has called him a high-tech terrorist.

Julian Assange said former foreign affairs minister Bob Carr lied about the level of consular assistance offered to the WikiLeaks founder. Photo: Peter Rae

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Assange unleashes new threat

WikiLeaks-style website reports illegal wildlife activity

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LOS ANGELES, June 13 (UPI) --WildLeaks, a new WikiLeaks-style website created by Andrea Crosta of the Elephant Action League, allows whistleblowers to report tips on wildlife crime and has been catching some big fish.

"We had our first tip within 24 hours and the response has been beyond our wildest imagination," said Crosta, now executive director of the Elephant Action League. Crosta told the Guardian that people cannot report because they fear the corrupt law enforcement. "You can't, for example, export containers full of ivory from Mombasa without bribing people left, right and centre," Crosta told the Guardian. "We definitely feel we are filling a gap."

Their tips have included elephant poaching in Africa, hunting of Sumatran tigers, illegal lion and leopard hunting, and illegal logging.

The tips are collected and then analyzed by WildLeaks legal and security teams before they decide whether to pursue an investigation.

Crosta said investigations are usually slow because, "people have to trust you." The investigation into al-Shabaab took 18 months. They found the group was pushing tons of ivory through Somalia every month.

A 2011 report from the group Global Financial Integrity puts wildlife crime as the fifth largest illegal market with profits from $7.8 to $10 billion.

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WikiLeaks-style website reports illegal wildlife activity

Chelsea Manning accuses U.S. of lying about Iraq, controlling press

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FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan., June 16 (UPI) --Chelsea Manning accused the U.S. of consistently lying about the war in Iraq and slammed the process of embedding journalists in military units in the New York Times on Sunday.

Manning, who has been mostly silent since being convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison for releasing classified materials to WikiLeaks, said that in light of the recent surge of violence in Iraq it is time to question "how the United States military controlled the media coverage of its long involvement there and in Afghanistan."

"I believe that the current limits on press freedom and excessive government secrecy make it impossible for Americans to grasp fully what is happening in the wars we finance," she wrote in the op-ed, titled "The Fog Machine of War."

Manning cited failures in press freedom when reports described the 2010 Iraq elections as a success -- a milestone that signified the creation a free and democratic system. Contrary to these reports, Manning wrote that at the time, military and diplomatic reports said political dissidents of Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki were detained, tortured and killed by the federal police.

She says she was previously ordered to investigate people the federal police said were printing "anti-Iraqi literature." Upon finding these individuals were not affiliated with terrorists, she forwarded the information to a commanding officer who told her to continue assisting the federal police in tracking down more "anti-Iraqi" printers.

The fact that this was never reported by western media, Manning said, shows a lack of press freedom regarding military operations. During her deployment she says she never saw more than 12 embedded journalists in Iraq because the military controls the process.

Less well known is that journalists whom military contractors rate as likely to produce 'favorable' coverage, based on their past reporting, also get preference. This outsourced 'favorability' rating assigned to each applicant is used to screen out those judged likely to produce critical coverage.

Manning said military public affairs officers could strip a journalist of embed status if they report something the military does not like.

Freedom of the press in the U.S. did see a significant decline in 2013. Reporters Without Borders released a report in February that showed the U.S. had dropped from the 32nd to the 46th spot in a list of countries ranked by press freedom. Manning's conviction contributed to the drop in ranking.

"Opinion polls indicate that Americans' confidence in their elected representatives is at a record low. Improving media access to this crucial aspect of our national life -- where America has committed the men and women of its armed services -- would be a powerful step toward re-establishing trust between voters and officials," Manning concluded.

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Chelsea Manning accuses U.S. of lying about Iraq, controlling press

Chelsea Manning accuses US of lying about Iraq in controversial New York Times op-ed

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Detained US soldier Chelsea Manning warned Americans they were being lied to about Iraq once more in a recent op-ed Said 'the current limits on press freedom and excessive government secrecy make it impossible for Americans to grasp fully what is happening in the wars we finance' Manning is serving a 35-year prison sentence on espionage charges and other offenses for passing along 700,000 secret documents, including diplomatic cables and military intelligence files, to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks

By Agence France Presse and Michael Zennie

Published: 08:22 EST, 15 June 2014 | Updated: 16:54 EST, 15 June 2014

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Chelsea Manning, the U.S. soldier serving a 35-year sentence for leaking a trove of classified documents to WikiLeaks, has spoken out from his military prison cell in Kansas to warn Americans that they are being lied to about Iraq once more.

In a remarkable New York Times Op-Ed piece written from behind bars, Manning said she believes the 'limits on press freedom and excessive government secrecy make it impossible for Americans to grasp fully what is happening in the wars we finance.'

Manning, who changed her name from Bradley after beginning sex-reassignment treatments, also defended her leak of 700,000 secret documents - the largest leak of U.S. intelligence in history.

'I understand that my actions violated the law. However, the concerns that motivated me have not been resolved,' she wrote.

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Chelsea Manning accuses US of lying about Iraq in controversial New York Times op-ed

Background check firm that vetted Snowden faces fraud …

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The background check company that vetted Edward Snowden and faces fraud accusations from the Justice Department has refused a congressional request for details about executive bonus payouts and the identities of some former officials.

The company does not anticipate making a further response, a lobbyist for USIS wrote in an April 10 email to Democratic staffers on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

SEE ALSO: Contractor that vetted Snowden gets load of work after paying lobbyists

The previously undisclosed email correspondence, obtained by The Washington Times last week, was in response to requests to USIS by Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Maryland Democrat and ranking member of the oversight committee.

He wanted to know, among other things, how the company awarded bonuses, whether it conducted any internal investigations into fraud accusations and what, if any, actions officials took to claw back six- and seven-figure bonuses to former executives.

Those questions were raised in the wake of a Justice Department civil lawsuit accusing USIS of claiming it completed about 650,000 background investigations that actually remained unfinished, while receiving millions of dollars in performance awards from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

The company has addressed some of the issues raised by Mr. Cummings publicly, but not all of the information sought by the congressman has been disclosed. So far, the company has resisted providing answers.

Mr. Cummings inquiry was forwarded to USIS in March by Rep. Darrell E. Issa, California Republican and chairman of the House oversight panel, which held a hearing in February into last years Washington Navy Yard shootings. The gunman, Aaron Alexis, was vetted by USIS, which is a part of Virginia-based Altegrity Inc.

Months after requesting information from USIS CEO Sterling Phillips both at a hearing and in his follow-up letter Mr. Cummings is increasingly frustrated that his questions remain unanswered.

The CEO of USIS committed under oath that he would answer questions from the committee, but now his lobbyists say he refuses, Mr. Cummings told The Washington Times.

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Background check firm that vetted Snowden faces fraud ...